The Reception of International Law in the EU Legal Order

Ever since the early 1970s, the question as to the precise status and effects to be accorded to international norms within the EU legal order has given rise to puzzlement, controversy, and debate. Some claim that the EU is, in the wonderful German phrase, völkerrechtsfreundlich: it is thought that the EU has a friendly and accommodating position towards international law, marred only by the generally acknowledged exception concerning WTO law. Others maintain that, as a general matter, the position of WTO law actually reflects the general practice: WTO law is not the exception, but the general rule. Yet others perceive a temporal development: starting from a friendly disposition towards international law, the EU has become, over time, less accommodating. And at least one author posits something close to the reverse, suggesting that the EU is actually increasingly receptive to international law, the latter increasingly being interwoven in EU law.